Author: Tonya
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So Much For That Career in Stand-Up Comedy
This Wasn’t On The Five-Year Plan Sometimes I’m tempted to look around at the chaos that is now my life and wonder how on earth I got here. How did I go from full-time ministry as a pastor’s wife to living with my parents while building a tiny house in middle age? If you had Read more
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Eighteen Months of Grace
Sometimes evidence of healing doesn’t come in dramatic moments. It doesn’t arrive with a breakthrough, a celebration, or a grand declaration that everything is finally okay. Sometimes it looks like something so ordinary that everyone else misses it. For eighteen months, my husband and I slipped quietly in and out of church each Sunday. The Read more
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Spiritual Lipstick and Messy Buns
Less Put Together Than I Used to Be I caught my reflection in the mirror the other day and laughed. My hair was pulled into a messy bun, no makeup—just freckles and fine lines in all their glory. My eyebrows could definitely use a wax. I was wearing leggings and an oversized T-shirt—my new go-to—and Read more
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Forecast: Stormy With A Chance Of Shipwreck
(We don’t get storm warnings in life — only grace to endure them.) Yesterday I received a call from someone I hadn’t spoken with in more than a year. In our conversation we spoke about disappointments and she shared how she and her husband were struggling with ambivalence toward churches because of their personal experiences. Read more
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The Places We Never Planned To Be
Several years ago my family planned a trip to Washington D.C. for Spring Break. We invited my mom to join us, booked plane tickets and secured an AirBnB. We were excited to see the cherry blossoms and explore the historic areas, we booked a condo conveniently located near the areas we hoped to visit and Read more
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Open Mouth, Insert Doubts
From Forced Resignation to Forced Dental Analogies Well, it’s been a minute since I last posted, I am sure both of my subscribers already knew that though. Life has been chaotic. The past 6 months have felt like a long dessert hike but one that felt like I had no idea where I was going Read more
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Wrestling With God
Holy Smackdown When I was growing up my older brother loved to watch WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment – the only place you can watch a grown man climb a ladder with a briefcase… and somehow it makes sense. I remember as a child watching the TV screen and trying to make sense of it all Read more
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Apparently Life Doesn’t Come With An Answer Key Kids ask a lot of questions. My kids ask a obnoxious amount of questions. If I had dollar for every time my youngest asks “why?” I could give Elon Musk a run for his money. Okay, that’s an exaggeration – but still. We have a rule in Read more
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One Unsteady Step At A Time…
I’d Rather Be Leaning On Jesus Than Falling On My Face It’s been 31 months since I first heard the words Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. I had known something was wrong for months but was not prepared for the moment the doctor on the computer screen would say “I’d like you to bring your husband Read more
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Where are we going exactly?
God, I Don’t Feel Like Singing Being a parent teaches you all sorts of lessons. It’s like living with tiny comedians who accidentally teach you things—I mean, who knew that life’s greatest lessons could come from quirky, chaotic, question-spewing little humans who have mastered the art of let’s-make-a-deal? And there it is, right smack dab Read more